CATARMAN, Northern Samar – This province, fresh from a successful 1st Ibàbao Festival, celebrated its 58th founding anniversary on Monday, June 19. Highlight of the Ibàbao Festival was a festival danced competition topped by the municipality of Pambujan. The town of Lope de Vega was second and San Roque third among 17 participating municipalities. They received P300,000, P200,000, and P100,000 respectively, while non-winners received P50,000 each. "We used to celebrate these festivals per town separately, but now, we were able to bring them into an event for locals and visitors to witness as we level up with the Ibàbao Festival," Gov. Edwin Ongchuan said. Ongchuan told the people to expect grander celebrations in the coming years as they also intend to join bigger festivals. The governor said that they will choose a bigger venue for the street dancing competition and float parade. He said the two-week Ibabao Festival was highly successful because of the cooperation of everyone, especially the chief executives of the 24 municipalities and department heads. Ongchuan said they also welcomed guests and potential investors from other places during a business conference here. "Their presence means a lot because we were able to promote our province," he said, citing that they were also able to link  local enterprises to big businesses in Metro Manila. He shared that one of the investors is looking into the possibility of building a low-rise condominium in the capital Catarman while some of them will go around to explore potential tourism sites. From being the third poorest in the Philippines, Northern Samar has reduced its poverty rate and is now only the 32nd poorest of the 82 provinces.